NMDC to hilke iron-ore mining capacity to 51 MMT by 2014-15
20 Jul 2010
State-owned mining company National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) yesterday said it plans to boost its iron ore production capacity from 29 million metric tonnes at present to 51 million metric tonnes by 2014-15.
The company also plans to lay a Rs3,000 crore pipeline from Bailadila to Visakhapatnam for transport of iron ore, according to NMDC chairman and managing director Rana Som.
Som said in Kolkata, the investment for the expansion programme had not yet been decided, however, a sum of about Rs200 crore would be required for producing each additional million tonnes of iron ore.
He said the company had decided to lay a new 430km pipeline along the national and state highway, that will transport iron ore from Bailadila to Visakhapatnam, for facilitating maintenance and watch.
Earlier this year, Maoists carried out an attack on the pump-house attached to a pipeline on the Andhra Pradesh-Orissa border used to bring in iron ore slurry from Bailadilla to the pelletisation plant of the Essar group.
Som said the new pipeline would be in place 20-22 months following the order placement. MECON is in the process of preparing a project report for the new pipeline.